Plumed Helmets

[Josh The Lighthouse Guy]

I recently learned U.S. Army Dragoons in the early 1800s were still wearing plumed helmets. How long did this practice continue, or was at least relegated to the parade ground?

Did the U.S. Army Cavalry regiments also wear plumed helmets or was that exclusively the Dragoons?

Did any volunteer cavalry units have plumed headgear during the American Civil War? Not individual officers (like Stuart's distinctive ostrich feather), but whole companies, battalions, or regiments.

 

[HatEnjoyer]

I recently learned U.S. Army Dragoons in the early 1800s were still wearing plumed helmets. How long did this practice continue, or was at least relegated to the parade ground?

Did the U.S. Army Cavalry regiments also wear plumed helmets or was that exclusively the Dragoons?

Did any volunteer cavalry units have plumed headgear during the American Civil War? Not individual officers (like Stuart's distinctive ostrich feather), but whole companies, battalions, or regiments.

It's hard to really pinpoint, but I think it's safe to say helmets or "jockey caps" with long manes stopped seeing widespread use by the 1840s. From what I've seen, such helmets were still seeing a good amount of use (as full dress uniform items of course) during the 1830s. (Not a helmet/jockey cap, but the dragoon below on the right is wearing a cap with a "mane" or "tail" as part of the 1833 uniform):

Here's a reproduction of the helmet worn by the 1833 Charleston Light Dragoons made by Dirty Billy's Hats:

The Republic of Texas Dragoons and Travis Guards also wore maned helmets according to the Texas Military Forces Museum. You can check out what their uniforms looked like here: https://www.texasmilitaryforcesmuseum.org/republic/marshall/plate4.htm
And here:

Cavalry Sergeant - Full Dress - Travis Guards

Uniforms of the Republic of Texas and the Men that Wore Them, 1836-1846

www.texasmilitaryforcesmuseum.org

It wasn't just dragoons wearing this type of headgear however. At the start of the war, maned helmets also saw use by militia cavalry units such as the Georgia Hussars:

On the other hand, ostrich plumes like the one JEB Stuart sported were worn by both US and CS cavalrymen (and even infantry; don't forget about the 1858 dress hat!) but only on the parade ground, or when having a portrait taken. Here are a handful photos found by RedRover, Klaudly, and Sheltowee as seen on this thread: https://civilwartalk.com/threads/share-your-favorite-civil-war-uniforms.213015/page-2

I think I need to turn in for the night, so any deeper searching will have to wait for tomorrow haha

 

[major bill]

This somewhat depends on your definition of "plume". For example a couple of the above wear horse hair plumes, while others wear feather plumes. There were different styles of feather plumes.

Under plume you have hackles, tufts, troatbeard plumes and pom-poms. There are standing feather plumes, fountain plumes, and drooping plumes (drooping coque plumes). Plus there are different feathers used. Swan plumes are often drooping plumes as are cock feathers. Egret and Ostridge feathers are often standing plumes. Hackles are standard hackles or fan hackles. Horse hair plumes are usually drooping plumes

 

[Old Soldier]

The plumes never went away - although the term 'dragoon' did. Full dress uniform retained it although it is rarely seen. US cavalry full dress helmet M1881

The other corps wore a plume too - of the corps color.